Although I’ve never been a black man, I understand Malcomb’s actions in this essay. Everybody seems to rely on what others think of them. Malcomb wanted to eventually slick up and get a conk. He wanted to be a part of the higher class. This is nothing awful or new. I believe that no matter where somebody is in society, they will always want more than they currently possess. Getting into drugs and whatever is never a great idea. Unless, you make some good money from it. Becoming the shoeshine boy at the Roseland State Ballroom, Malcomb began to earn money. He soon found out that much of the job’s income was made mostly from selling alcohol and drugs, and acting as a servant who goes between black pimps and white customers. Malcolm…show more content… I am a creative, different person myself and just don’t understand how someone could give up their own personalities; however, the aspects that I found intriguing was how he transformed his physical appearance when he moved to Boston. There, Malcomb is exposed to the different lifestyles that black Americans have adopted. Malcomb’s most defining moment in Boston occurs when he makes a conscious decision to separate himself from the “Hill” negroes in Roxbury by associating more with negroes who were being their natural selves and not putting on “airs” as he put it. Among this social class of negroes, Malcomb befriends a man named Shorty, who introduces Malcomb to the ‘conking’ process whereby Malcomb’s reddish, typical African American hair is made to look more straight and shiny, such as a white man’s hair. As “Homeboy” nears an end, however, Malcomb quickly voices his disgust about his decision to change his hair’s texture. He claimed in the story that this was his first real step towards self-degradation. Indeed, his conk represents a type of self-deterioration, because it reflects Malcomb’s inner desire with his white oppressors as well as it reveals his own inner struggle of being
